Type

Duration

Shelf mark

Subjects

Recording date

Is part of (Collection)

Opie collection of children's games and songs

Recording locations

Garforth and Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England

Interviewers

Opie, Iona (speaker, female)

Speakers

unidentified (children)

Abstract

Part 2 of 2. [00:00:00 - 00:15:00] This recording continues to interview the children from Garforth Parochial School heard on the C898-12-01 interview. The tape also includes an interview conducted at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Primary School, Huddersfield. The recording begins with the children from Garforth performing a selection of singing games. These are: 'Yankee Doodle' [00:00:00 - 00:00:21]; 'I'm a Bow-Legged Chicken' [00:00:20 - 00:00:45]; 'Shoo Fly' [00:00:46 - 00:03:00] and 'In and Out the Shady Bluebells' [00:04:15 - 00:05:00]. Throughout this section of the recording, an unidentified male speaker can be heard in the background taking photographs. This is presumably Father Damian Webb who was a collector of children's games and songs. The interview in Garforth ends with the schoolgirls performing the skipping song 'There's Somebody Under the Bed' [00:03:11 - 00:04:13]. After a short pause in the recording, Iona explains that she is now with eight children at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Primary School, Huddersfield. The date is 12th July, 1978. The eight girls introduce themselves one by one and then give the name of the headmaster and the school secretary. Introductions over, the children describe one of their favourite games that they call 'Clock in the Tower'. To play this, all the children gather in a circle with one person in the middle. Each child has a number up to three and the person in the middle of the circle calls: 'the clock in the tower strikes the hour' and then states a number. The children who have chosen this number then have to run around the circle and into the middle and must tag the child standing in the centre. This child is then 'on' and replaces the other child in the centre of the circle [00:06:43 - 00:07:23]. The remainder of the recording contains a number of singing games sung by the schoolgirls. They sing 'Lucy Locket' [00:07:27 - 00:08:09]; 'As I Was Going to Turkey' (a variation of 'I'm Going to Kentucky') [00:08:39 - 00:09:47]; 'Orange Bells' (a variation of 'Orange Balls') [00:09:48 - 00:10:42]; 'The Hokey Kokey' [00:10:43 - 00:13:31] and 'The Big Ship Sails' [00:13:32 - 00:15:00].

Metadata record:

Recording of children demonstrating songs and discussing playground games with Iona Opie (part 2 of 2)

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